As a result of the spread of mobile terminals in recent years, technologies have also been devised and made available for practical applications that enable the user of a mobile terminal to provide a notification about his or her location or to identify the location of another person.
Portable terminals are encouraged to be equipped with a location identifying system utilizing the GPS so that, particularly in case of emergency, the police station, fire department, hospital or the like can be notified of your own location accurately.
However, from the viewpoint of privacy of the user of such mobile terminal, it is not preferable if the location of the user can be identified unilaterally and unconditionally through a predetermined procedure on the part of the other party.
In consideration of such circumstances surrounding the user, JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-077975 A discloses a position information notification system whereby monitoring of the location of a mobile terminal (personal handyphone system as a mobile communications terminal) is allowed on the condition that such monitoring takes place only within a predetermined area and that there is prior permission from the user of the mobile terminal.
JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-353976 A discloses a mobile terminal (a wrist band sensor as an information communications device) equipped with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. The type of information that is disclosed, including the position information about the mobile terminal acquired through its GPS receiver, and other various information retained or acquired by the mobile terminal, is set depending on the party on the other end of communication.
The above prior art examples are both merely capable of selecting whether or not the other party should be given the position information indicating the location of the user. Neither example is capable of setting the level of detail (such as the granularity of the position information given to the other party, or the frequency of such notice) of the position information indicating one's own location to the other party.
The following are examples related to the above technologies.
Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-077975 A
Patent Document 2: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-353976 A
In such mobile terminals equipped with a communications function and capable of identifying one's own location, even when the other party is to be given the position information about the location of one's own, there are cases where such position information should be detailed or elaborate, and cases where such position information should not be detailed.
Thus, in mobile terminals equipped with a communications function and capable of identifying the location of one's own, there is a strong need to change the level of detail of the position information about one's own location to be given to the other party depending on the degree of intimacy with the other party.
However, the aforementioned conventional techniques are merely capable of selecting whether or not the other party should be notified of the location of one's own. They send to the other party position information about the location of one's own that is more elaborate than necessary, even when there is no need to send such elaborate position information about one's own location, thus resulting in a failure to ensure the protection of privacy. The technologies could be modified such that, whenever the other party is to be notified of one's own location, general position information is transmitted instead of elaborate position information about one's own location so as to protect privacy. In this case, however, problems may arise when such notification is for emergency purposes, such as when notifying a police station, fire department, or hospital or the like, which would require elaborate position information.
Furthermore, even for the same party, there may be cases where the user does not mind letting the other party have position information indicating his or her location, and cases where the user does mind doing so, depending on the location of the user or time. For example, from the viewpoint of protection of privacy, in some cases it may be preferable to keep secret from someone you are having a business relationship with position information indicating the location of one's own house or one's location during non-working hours.
In such cases, the aforementioned conventional techniques are incapable of selecting whether or not the other party should be notified of the location of the user depending on the location of the user or the time band including the day of the week. If the other party should be notified of such information, they are incapable of selecting the level of detail of such position information. Thus, the conventional techniques are problematic from the viewpoint of protection of privacy.
In view of the aforementioned problems of conventional art, it is an object of the invention to provide a mobile terminal, a communications terminal, a location notifying system using such terminals, and a location notifying method, whereby, when notifying the other party of the user's current location, the level of detail of position information indicating the user's location is indicated in terms of disclosure levels. When notifying the other party of position information indicting the user's location, such notification is made with a disclosure level that is set depending on the other party, so that the other party is prevented from acquiring more information than is necessary about the user's location.
It is another object of the invention to provide a mobile terminal, a communications terminal, a location notifying system using such terminals, and a location notifying method whereby, even for the same party, the position information indicating the user's location that is not notified to the other party is controlled depending on the location of the user or the time band, so that the other party is prevented from acquiring more information about the user's location than is necessary.